US and the World

Ugly as a frog and twice as political

The New York Times > National > In Texas Case Linked to DeLay, Prosecutor Welcomes Spotlight

Honestly, from a distance Texas politics just looks delightfu; These people do everything biga nd loud - inluding, lie and cheating. This story is particularly sweet because you have a long-time Democratic district attorney prosecuting some folks connected with the biggest SOB in the House, Tom Delay. (Another tough-talking chicken-hawk, by the way.)

Anyway, the story is interesting, but what tickled me was this quote where the DA defends his objectivity from a Delay attack:

Mr. DeLay, who along with Mr. Craddick and the defendants have denied wrongdoing and denounced the charges as election-inspired, called Mr. Earle a "runaway district attorney" with "a long history of being vindictive and partisan," to which Mr. Earle retorted, "Being called vindictive and partisan by Tom DeLay is like being called ugly by a frog."

"The only people I antagonize more than Republicans are Democrats," Mr. Earle said later. He said the record showed he had prosecuted 12 Democratic officials and 4 Republican officials, although for much of his time in office, he acknowledged, Republicans were on the outs. "We prosecute abuses of power," he said, "and you have to have power to abuse it."